Nick instantly knew something had gone wrong. He expected the blueberry to be wet and sticky, maybe a sharp sting when it hit. What actually hit him burned like fire.

Bellwether's voice echoed under the museums high ceiling. "Did you think I wouldn't check? Poor, naive little Judy. You and that fox are not half as clever as you think you are."

Nick looked over at Judy, the implication of what Bellwether was saying sinking in, and her expression matched the fear in his eyes. He managed to mouth 'run' before the pain hit him. Over the sound of his suddenly very loud heartbeat, Nick could barely hear Bellwether calling the ZPD; he only had to fight it till help arrived.

Don't hurt Judy

He spasmed to the ground, his back arched and claws extending into the dirt. Nick could hear Judy talking with Bellwether but it sounded like gibberish to him.

Don't hurt Judy

His blood felt like it was boiling, burning him from the inside out. He had to fight it.

Don't Hurt Judy the rabbit

Another convulsion hit and pushed the breath out of him. Colors were fading and smells became more pronounced.

Judy is a rabbit

Movement across from him caught his eye. Something fuzzy and grey; it smelled delicious.

Rabbit

He could feel his throat vibrate and watched the delicious smelling grey thing freeze. The ringing in his ears that had been growing louder finally reached unbearable levels and his mind went blank.

Nick slowly opened his eyes. A white tiled ceiling with dimmed lights greeted him while periodic beeps caused his ears to twitch. His head felt like it had been split in two and his left eye wouldn't open all the way. He tried to bring his paw to his head but was stopped with a metallic clang. Attached to his wrists and ankles were handcuffs. Due to the bed being elephant sized, they were linked in a chain to reach the bed rails. He had enough slack to pull his paws to his side but not enough to reach the other wrist.

"I wouldn't move. You might tear your stitches."

Nick would have jumped had he not been so sluggish. The fact that he hadn't noticed the uniformed elephant sitting next to his bed till she spoke could attest to that. He lay back against the pillow. "What happened?"

"I'm here to keep watch, not give you the details." She answered bluntly, not bothering to look at him as she continued reading the large newspaper she held.

Nick's head was too fuzzy to be annoyed. "Can you at least tell my why I'm handcuffed?"

This got a reaction as she turned to glare at him. "After what you did, you're lucky it's only cuffs." With a huff and a quick shake of the newspaper, she went back to ignoring him.

Nick was more than a little confused. What had he done to warrant the anger? He tried to recall but his head felt like it was full of cotton. He would have to ask Ju…

"You were right all along, I really am just a dumb bunny."

…

"We lost all of the evidence."

"Yep, except for this"

"Oh, Nick!"

…

"Take the case, get it to Bogo."

"I'm not gonna leave you behind. That's not happening"

"I can't walk."

"Just...we'll think of something."

...

"So what are you going to do? Kill me?"

"No, of course not; he is."

…

"Judy!?"

The officer jumped at his outburst but Nick was too focused on trying to get out the cuffs. "I need to go find Judy. I have to make sure she's ok." The bed rattled as he yanked on the cuff chains.

The elephant stood and put enough pressure on his chest to keep him from moving. "What you need to do is lay there until doctors give you the all clear."

Nick struggled but quickly used up what little energy he had and fell still, a low whine escaping his lips. He opened his mouth to beg for any info on Judy when a noise in the hall pulled both of their gazes.

"You can't go in there, ma'am."

"You tell me this everyday and yet everyday I ignore you. And don't call me 'mam', Fangmeyer, it sounds weird."

"You are a civilian at this time, ma'am, and that ball trick only worked because I was tired so... *yelp*"

"Oops, sorry. It's hard to control these things and they will sometimes get'cha in the shin."

The door opened to a rabbit wearing jeans and a plaid shirt. She had her right leg in a large medical boot and was using crutches to limp into the room. Behind her, a white wolf officer was on the ground clutching his leg with a black wolf officer standing to the side, one paw to his face while he shook his head. It wasn't until she had finished the difficult process of turning around and shutting the door that Nick came out of his daze.

"Judy! You're OK!" Nick tried to sit up but the handcuffs made it difficult. Other than a few small bandages on her arms and the previously mentioned boot, Judy appeared to be fine. She was startled at hearing his shout but recovered her senses and hobbled her way over to his bed. She had to lean over the bed to reach his paw to hold it in hers.

"Oh, Nick, I didn't know you were awake, I'm so relieved." She seemed on the brink of jumping into the bed and hugging him as she looked over his injuries. "They couldn't be sure if the coma was a normal reaction to the antidote or something else."

"Coma?"

"After the museum, they brought you here to keep you contained while they worked on an antidote. When they injected it, you went into a coma. You've been out for three days."

Nick's good eye and mouth opened in shock. Three days? It had only felt like moments since he blacked out at the museum. A pressing question that needed answering pulled him back to the moment. "What happened in the museum? I was afraid I'd killed you."

"Didn't they tell you after you woke up?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

Nick shook his head. "I only just woke up and grumpy trunks over here," he nodded in the direction of the elephant, who simply grunted in response, "wasn't very forthcoming with information."

Judy let out a tired sigh and turned to the officer. "Francine, can you give us some privacy to talk?"

Francine looked at Judy for a few moments before nodding and standing up. They waited for the door to shut before facing each other again.

"I don't think she likes me."

"Well, you did 'mark' her jacket when she was fox-sitting you, and maybe got a little too...friendly, with her leg." Judy said, turning to hide a blush.

Nick groaned out of embarrassment, wishing his cuffs reached enough to let him hide his face. "Is it too late for the antidote to finish me off?"

Judy hit his arm, hard.

"Don't joke about that!" He could feel her paw shaking in his as she was trying to hide how upset she felt. He tried to see it from her perspective. To him it had been like going to sleep and waking up to a hangover. To her though, it had been days of not knowing if he would ever wake up again. He felt like a complete idiot.

"You're right, I'm sorry."

Judy nodded as she tried and failed to hold back tears. Nick patted the spot next to him on the bed and she climbed up. He couldn't fully hug her due to the cuffs but did his best with one arm while she let loose all her pent up emotions onto his shoulder. She had been holding it all back while his condition was uncertain, but now that he was awake the dam broke.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours; Judy sobbing and apologizing while Nick comforted her telling her he was alright and everything was going to be OK. He secretly shed a few tears of his own, relief at knowing she was alive and didn't hate him. Eventually their tears dried and her hiccups stopped, but they continued to hold on to each other, enjoying the closeness. The warmth pressing against his side and his body feeling drained made keeping his eyes open difficult, but the need for answers won out. He looked down at Judy, who was still holding his midsection and seemed content to listen to his heart beat.

"So, what exactly happened after I… you know...turned sav..."

"After you got shot," she interrupted with a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah, after I got shot. Did the ZPD get there in time to stop me? I tried holding out as long as I could but at some point I blacked out and don't remember anything."

Judy pushed herself up to better look at him. "Not exactly. You held off long enough for me to get the confession but once you fully…got shot…you came straight for me."

Nick couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye, instead looking off to the side. "Did I hurt you?"

She reached up and turned his face towards hers. "No, no, no, you didn't hurt me. You tried but I ...stopped you." This time she was the one to look away.

Nick could tell Judy was feeling guilty about something. He tried to ease the tension with a grin. "C'mon, Carrots, give it to me straight. Did you taze me? Maybe had a can of that fox repellent on you?"

She took a moment to take a breath and let it out before looking at him again.

"I…beat you up."

If you were to look up "dumbstruck" in the dictionary, you would find a picture of his face at this moment.

"What?"

"Oh, Nick I'm so sorry. It was the only way I could think of and I feel so bad about it but you were coming after me and I had no choice." She was looking at him like she might start crying again.

"No, no it's ok, don't cry. I'm not angry or anything. It was unexpected, that's all. I guess that explains why my eye is swollen shut."

She reached up to tenderly touch the injured side of his face. "I tried to take it easy on you but it was completely unavoidable and I didn't mean to hurt you so bad."

"So you, what, kicked me in the head?"

Judy paused in thought.

3 days earlier

Judy had Nicks muzzle hugged to her body. She was using her arms to keep it forcefully closed while her powerful legs were gripped around his front paws, keeping him from regaining his feet. He was thrashing like crazy but he wasn't in the best physical shape and she was able to overpower him. At some point his wild movements snapped the button on her jeans and his wet nose went down where it shouldn't have. Her legs reacted automatically. Even Bellwether winced at his yelp. Luckily, he couldn't feel much pain on account of being out cold and the ZPD arrived soon after.

"Yep, that is pretty much it."

Nick couldn't take anymore of her guilty look, or embarrassment as it was hard to tell with her facing away, and took her paw in his and gave a reassuring grin. "It's OK, Carrots. I'd happily take a kick from you any day over the other outcome." She blushed to her ears and hid her face in his shoulder. "I'm surprised you were able to take me down though." She shot him an accusatory glare, daring him to say 'because she was a rabbit'. "On account of the whole leg thing."

Judy made an 'oh' face. "My leg did hurt like crazy, but with my focus on stopping you and the adrenaline going, I was able to ignore it until backup arrived. I was trained to take down opponents much bigger than you, even while injured, and in that state you didn't actually fight. Stuck with charging and pouncing mostly. It was easy enough to roll out of the way." She poked his stomach and he grunted. "You not being an athlete helped."

He put on an obviously fake offended look. If his paw could reach he would have put it over his heart in mock pain. "Carrots, you wound me. I'll have you know that I am the most athletic con artist fox between 4th and 21st street." He was rewarded with her smile and a tighter hug.

"Funny thing is that my worst injury came from kicking you in the head." She pointed to her crutches, "I have to stay off of it for six weeks to let the fracture heal."

"I have been told that hardheadedness runs in my family." An easy laughter filled the room and the tension they both carried seemed to melt away. After getting it out of their systems they fell into a comfortable silence. He could feel her light breathing tickle his neck fur and the way her ears seemed to move into his touch as he stroked them. He didn't know how long they would stay like this or what their relationship was now but was content to stay in this moment as long as it could, though he did still have one request.

"Now that I'm not sav…" She shot him a glare. "...shot anymore, can I get these cuffs off?"

Judy chuckled into his shoulder before pulling keys from her back pocket.

"You had those the whole time?"

"The cuffs weren't because of that; Francine felt she was owed some payback after the marking incident. She made me promise not to un-cuff you till started to complain."

"This is cruel and unusual punishment, officer."

"This is only half of it, wait until you see the clothes she picked out to replace your old, shredded ones. She must have really liked that jacket."

"That bad?"

"Depends, is tie-dye your color?"

Nicked lay back with a groan and could feel Judy's laughter vibrate his body. She then sat up and began undoing his cuffs, allowing him to rub his raw wrists. "I should go and let you sleep, you need your rest." She moved to hop off the bed but Nick grabbed her paw. She looked at him questioningly.

"Can you, um, stay a while longer?"

Nick scratched behind his head as he tried to look at her out of the corner of his good eye. Judy was blushing but hadn't moved.

"It may be the meds or the antidote, but the world still feels fuzzy; like it's a dream. It makes me feel better when I can look down and know that I didn't...that you're ok."

Her eyes turned sympathetic and she opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it and simply nodded. She climbed back to the spot she was laying before and he lifted the bed sheet so she could crawl under before covering them both with it. He could feel her warmth against him and let it chase away the demons that he knew he would have to deal with eventually. With the help of a fighter like her though, he felt he could tackle anything. His last thoughts before sleep claimed him was whether she still had his application and if it was too late to turn it in.